Greenock's astonishing collapse leads to stunning loss

Drumpellier vs Greenock 1st XI
WDCU CSL Premier Division
Saturday 4th May 2019

Drumpellier 54 S Bandekar 4 for 16, JPC Hempsey 4 for 24
Greenock 1st XI 50 A Rawlinson 5 for 12, W Leslie 3 for 11

 Scorecard       

Having been totally on top for virtually the whole match against Drumpellier at Langloan on Saturday, Greenock completely lost their way with less than twenty runs needed to win and crashed to defeat in the most spectacular fashion, losing by four runs. The last half hour of the fixture was without doubt one of Greenock's worst ever batting collapses.

The match had begun so differently. Drumpellier captain Gavin Shaw won the toss and decided to bat, but soon wished he had not. Opening the batting with Jordan Pryde, Shaw had the shortest of stays at the wicket as he was clean bowled with the very first ball of the match by Saurabh Bandekar.

A second Drumpellier wicket went down in the sixth over when Jonathan Hempsey had Graeme McLaren caught by Bandekar with the home score on just 11. Then in the twelfth over a smart piece of fielding by Neil Flack led to the run out of Chris Keltie and Greenock captured a fourth wicket in the same over when Flack bowled Pryde. The score then was 18 for 4.

By the eighteenth over, Drumpellier's total had moved slowly on to 36 with William Leslie and Humza Sabri at the crease. But once again, Greenock made a breakthrough when wicketkeeper Zac Barranechea took a good catch from Jonathan Hempsey's bowling to dismiss Leslie for 15.

Jonathan Hempsey then got his third wicket when he bowled Nathan Allison who had not troubled the scorers and a seventh Drumpellier wicket fell when Sabri had his stumps knocked over by pace bowler Bandekar who had just returned to Greenock's bowling attack for a second spell.

Alistair Rawlinson became the eighth Drumpellier wicket to fall with the home score on 52. He was bowled by Jonathan Hempsey and with just two more runs added, the Drumps innings ended when Iyyan Qasim and Drew Pryde both fell victim to Saurabh Bandekar's pace bowling.

Jonathan Hempsey took 4 wickets for 24 runs and Bandekar 4 for 16 as Greenock's bowling attack finished off Drumpellier for just 54.

After the tea interval, Greenock made a similar start to Drumpellier by losing a wicket in the first over of their innings when Shailesh Prabhu was bowled by Drew Pryde.

A fine second wicket partnership of 40 runs by Neil Flack and Zac Barranechea took Greenock to the brink of victory before Neil Flack went down the wicket to Rawlinson to hit him over the top as he had done in the previous over, only this time he failed to make contact with the ball and was stumped for 13.

Cue collapse. Barranchea was needlessly run out having scored 21 to leave Greenock on 40 for 3 and then four more wickets fell in quick succession to leave Greenock reeling on 40 for 7. A further two wickets fell on 41, and then with the score on 50 , when it just began to look as though Greenock might make it across the line with Greg McDougall and Sam Sanghera the last two batsman at the crease, the final Greenock wicket was lost with the Glenpark side just four runs short of the meagre Drumpellier total.

It really was a case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and the Greenock team was left stunned and in disbelief from what had unfolded over a period of just thirty minutes.

Alistair Rawlinson was the hero for Drumpellier with outstanding figures of 5 wickets for just 12 runs as his bowling spell tore the heart out of the Greenock batting line-up.